Just Us Against the World
by Twozulz
Summary: The Doctor receives a strange message on his psychic paper and goes to investigate. But how will he react when he finds a young girl? And she can speak Gallifreyan? Can the Doctor be a father again?
1. Chapter 1

Amy Pond yawned as she walked down the stairs towards the console room of the TARDIS. If it hadn't been for the morning coffee she'd had, she'd still be asleep like her husband, Rory. But the Doctor had promised the couple the trip of a lifetime, and she didn't want to miss a second of a potential adventure.

Yawning yet again, Amy leaned on a railing as she came down to the console level. Speaking of their bowtie-wearing alien, where was he now? He should be here already, the redhead sourly thought. He was the one who said to be in the console room early. Sighing indignantly, the Pond whirled a ginger lock around her finger, waiting.

A yawn from the stairs briefly brought up Amy's hopes that the Doctor was finally there to whisk her away, but it turned out just to be Rory. Smirking at his rumpled clothes, she planted a kiss on his forehead as he finally made his way down to where she was leaning against the rail. "Glad to see you're finally up, sleepyhead," she teased.

Rory yawned in reply. "Well, trust me, if I'd planned this day I wouldn't have made us wake up so bloody early." He pecked Amy on the lips in an embrace, and she giggled, swatting him away. Grinning, the man straightened and looked about the room, confused. "Where is the Doctor anyways?"

A clunk of objects down below them answered as the Time Lord himself appeared, walking up from the wires and gears of his beloved time machine. "Here I am, Ponds!" he said, clapping his hands together and smiling at them as he raced to the console controls. "Sorry I'm late, bit of some mechanical problems to work through." The man looked toward the couple then, grinning widely. "You'd like to hear what you're going to be up to today?" The pair of them nodded, and the Doctor smiled even bigger (if that was even possible), darting towards them and holding up his hands as if he was a circus presenter.

"The planet of Melaxon III, home to one of the biggest markets and relaxation centres in the whole universe circa the fifty-first century. Any store or spa you could dream of- it's there!" The Doctor leaned into the couple, gleaming. "There's even a few nice restaurants if I do say so myself."

Smirking at his enthusiasm, Amy walked closer to the alien. "Why're you being so nice to us? What do you have up your sleeve, Raggedy Man? What're you up to? You've never been so excited to see any place in your life. What kind of deadly danger are you getting us into now?"

"Ah, Pond, that's the best part of it all, "he said, tapping his Amelia on the nose and then typing something into the TARDIS. "No deadly dangers, no running down corridors. Just a nice day for you and Rory the Roman." Flicking a switch and pulling down a lever, the TARDIS took off in flight and he continued talking, screaming over the rattle and clutter of the time machine. "Consider it an extended honeymoon!"

The TARDIS soon stopped and as quickly as Rory and Amy got their sense of direction going again the Doctor pushed a credit card-looking thing into their hands and shooed them out the door.

The Ponds marvelled at the sight before them. Smells and scenery and sounds erupted around them as they took in the hugeness of this fifty-first century mall. The Time Lord put his arm around Rory, pointing down at the card that Amy now held. "Fifty million credits, if I'm right. Enough to splurge on even Amy Pond's impulse buying," he grinned, the redhead huffing a little indignantly at the remark. Still smirking, he winked at the pair before walking off in his own way. "Enjoy yourselves, Ponds!" he shouted over his shoulder. "I'll meet you back at the TARDIS in a few hours!"

"And what'll you be doing?" Amy called back.

"Stuff!" the man vaguely answered, soon out of earshot for them to ask anything of him.

"I hope he'll be okay, whatever he's off to," the ginger sighed.

"I'm sure he will be. He's the Doctor, after all," her husband replied, giving her a soft squeeze. And with a few smiles, the happy couple was off to shop 'til they dropped on their suspicious extended honeymoon, soon forgetting about the quirky behaviour of that crazy Madman in a Box.

He had first received the message almost two weeks ago.

It wasn't very often anymore that he got anything off of his psychic paper. So, when he'd realised he'd received a call, the Doctor was a bit surprised. After all, there weren't many beings strong enough to send a telepathic message across time and space.

The memo left for him didn't help to solve the mystery- in fact, it was such a jumbled mess of circles and numbers and other crazy stuff that the man assumed the psychic paper had malfunctioned.

But just two days later, the same squiggles and somehow equations and spheres appeared again. And again, the alien tried to work out what was being said. But even the inventory of five billion languages in his head couldn't figure out what was going on.

So again and again the unintelligible writing revealed itself. It had only been yesterday that the Doctor had been thinking to just throw the damn thing away. But somehow, as he looked at the message, he could sense the plea that had reached out to meet him. _Help me. Please._

And so, using the TARDIS to track where the call was coming from (which he should've done in the first place anyways) he traced the signal back to Melaxon III. So he made his glorious Ponds come with him, dropping them off to shop... Of course, he hadn't actually been planning another honeymoon trip for them. He had come to see who his mysterious caller was.

The Time Lord soon found himself in what he believed was a maintenance corridor, hardly somewhere most buyers would go. But something, somewhere was nagging at his mind. Closing his eyes, he tried to focus on the plea. _Help me. Help me please._

He walked down many more corridors, following the sensation in his mind that was gradually getting louder, a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time, since his planet had burned by his own hands-

They were dead though. All of them. It couldn't be-

The man stopped at a door to his right. It had to be coming from here. It was so loud now, he felt like his brain would burst if it got any louder. Slowly, afraid of what he might find, he turned the doorknob and looked inside.

At first, it seemed like nothing was there, and maybe the alien had gotten the wrong place after all.

Until he heard the quiet sobs.

And there in the corner of the small space the Doctor was able to make out the outline of a little girl, her blue eyes wet with fresh tears. The pathetic creature was curled in on herself, he red hair stuck in knots, her knees pulled up to her chest.

Suddenly, the girl lifted her head up, and stared at the newcomer. Even fresher tears appeared in her eyes, and her lips moved, and words came out in a language the Time Lord couldn't understand.

But as she spoke again, her pleading form staring at him, the man's own eyes widened as he realised that yes, he could understand what this little girl was saying.

"_Help me, please. Please, are you to one who's come to rescue me? Help me."_

The language she was speaking- he hadn't heard it in years, since Gallifrey fell… His eyes threatened to overflow with tears too, her attempt at a telepathic link to him echoing in his skull.

For she was speaking Gallifreyan.

The lost language of the Time Lords.

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**I really shouldn't be starting to write another story when I already have so much going, but here this is. I hope you all like it, and please let me know if you actually do by leaving a review! Thanks to all who read this story! **


	2. Chapter 2

As the Doctor stared at this young child, he'd wondered why he hadn't seen it before. The red, traditional Gallifreyan robe draped over her. Her beautiful-coloured locks tugged back into a falling-apart Seal of Rassilon hairdo. Even the strange symbols on his psychic paper- a girl's attempt at writing Circular Gallifreyan, a language she had probably just only been taught.

The young girl had to be- was- a Time Lady.

"Please, are you here to help me?" the child cried out again.

Immediately, the man walked towards her, crouching down to her level. It took him a few seconds, but soon his mother tongue floated out of his mouth like it had hardly been much time since he'd spoken it last. "Yes, I have come to help." He took her hand and glanced into that blue again. "What's your name?" he asked. Feeling a two-heart pulse on her wrist, his own hearts raced.

"Laea," the girl choked back at him. "My name's Laea." Her tears thankfully had stopped. "What's yours?" she questioned.

The Time Lord hesitated. If he told her 'the Doctor' she might become frightened of such an old stuffy man who had already claimed his title in the universe. He knew he'd been afraid of such people in his society at her age. And then there was the worst prospect of all, that this girl could know the legends about him and refuse the help she so needed in terror. But then again, he couldn't just tell a young Time Lady is true name. "I'm Theta," the man settled on saying, using the title he'd used back in his Academy days. "Theta Sigma."

The girl sniffled, squeezing his hand tighter. "I like that name," she whispered hesitantly.

"And I like yours," he replied. "How old are you, Laea?" he added in a soothing tone.

The young child held up six fingers. "I'm six years old now," she stammered.

"Ah, six years old. That's a marvellous age. I loved being six." The alien squeezed her hand even tighter, as the girl still seemed to doubt that someone to help her was actually there in front of her. "Tell me, how long have you been here?"

"Three months, fourteen days, seven minutes, two seconds," the child responded proudly. The Doctor was taken aback. He forgot how well all his people, even the youngest, held on to their time sense.

Laea had just kept on talking through this realisation however, and the Time Lord had to tune again into what this young girl was saying. "…The TARDIS crashed here, and I've been sneaking some food off of some of the cook's counters to feed myself, but I could even try to fly off and go back to mum and dad because our TARDIS died…" The sobs that he'd been glad had stopped returned again, and Laea erupted into tears. "The sky was burning, and there was so much blood, you couldn't tell if the grass was just red… or… or covered in blood... And then mama and papa sent me off, and…" Without warning, the girl leaned forward into his arms, here forehead and fingers touching his forehead, her cries shattering his hearts in two…

And then somehow, impossibly, he was back on Gallifrey,

The Mountain of Solitude rose in the background, the two suns in the east. The red grass swayed around him, and the silver-leaved trees in this meadow indeed looked on fire in the light of the soon to be setting suns. It was all real, _it felt so real_, the man almost forgot it was just a young girl overloading her immense psychic trauma on him in the way of a memory.

The Doctor caught sight of a house then, and a pair of people near it crying over what he could tell was a fancy Type 400 TARDIS, the latest model at the time of Gallifrey's fall.

He walked forward towards the scene, soon, to his surprise, seeing Laea in the threshold of the time machine, hugging what had to be her mother tightly. "But why can't you and dad go?" the child sniffled, trying to wipe away her tears.

"We have to keep fighting, sweetie. But we'll come back and find you, we promise." The mother said, she too crying and affectionately pulling her daughter's red hair behind her ear.

"Promise?" Laea whispered.

"Promise," what had to be her father echoed.

And then the parents shut the door of the time machine, the girl reluctantly stepping back in it… the TARDIS dematerialised…

The man wanted to scream. Couldn't this couple see that it was all ending? That their planet would soon burn? They had lied to her. They would never come back, never see their daughter again, oh Rassilon, because he killed them.

It was only after again catching sound of Laea's sobs that he broke out of his reverie. Tearing up himself now, the Time Lord patted her back and pulled her shaking body towards hi in what he hoped was a comforting embrace. "It's okay, Laea. You're safe now. I'm going to take care of you," he promised, this time for all eternity.

The little girl continued to cry into his shoulder, and all the Doctor could think to do was keep rubbing her back in comforting circles, occasionally whispering choice Gallifreyan words and phrases that he hoped would lure her to sleep. Though he doubted she knew them, some of the circles turned into words in his- no, wait- their tongue. The words for love, peace, stop crying, hush, safe now.

Gradually, the man's work paid off and Laea's breath was calm and quiet in her much-deserved rest. The Time Lord sighed, glad that the child had calmed down.

Now he just had to figure out how to get her back to the TARDIS without waking her again.

Amy was worried.

She and Rory had been stepping in every single store this place had to offer, it seemed, and they still had forty million credits left. They'd even had a few guilty massages and mani-pedis- but the best part of it all was that they hadn't had to run away from any hostile alien once.

So when they'd gone back to the TARDIS to wait for their Raggedy Man, and he still hadn't turned up after an hour of grumbling, it looked as if maybe there would be some adventure involved on this trip.

But just as the couple had been prepared to search for that bow-tied alien, they caught sight of him just a few metres away with… was that a little girl in his arms?

"Doctor?" Amelia called out at the figure approaching her. Indeed, the young woman noticed, there was a child in some red exotic-looking robes. The most confusing thing to the pair though was that the man almost seemed to be… whispering to the girl in a language that was so free and floating, and yet fit perfectly together like pieces of a puzzle. A language that for some reason, the TARDIS wasn't translating.

"Ponds!" their friend suddenly broke free of his unintelligible whispering, looking up from the young child and at the pair. "Would mind holding Laea for a second? I just need to open the doors," he asked.

"Who?" Amy sputtered, bewildered at the question, but Rory obediently held out his arms and walked towards the Time Lord, who obliged to the gesture and gently laid the girl- Laea, apparently- into his embrace.

Mouthing a quick "thank you" to the Roman, the Doctor pushed open the doors and gestured for his Ponds to make an entrance. As soon as they entered the time machine however, the alien quickly took the young child back into his arms again. "I just have to take her up to bed; I'll be right back," the man spoke in a hushed tone. And then, hardly waiting for an answer, he took off up the stairs of the console room with his precious cargo.

Amy and Rory just quietly blinked into space for a few moments, their brains filling with so many questions about who this girl was, why she was here, and how their time-travelling friend had even come across this child.

"Who is she?" Amy finally found herself murmuring to her husband.

"I have no idea. How did he even find her?" Rory asked in reply, confused as his wife.

"Don't ask me," the ginger woman responded, still as perplexed as ever.

The couple sat in silence again for a while until Rory decided to speak up. "Amy, when I held her, I- I checked her pulse, just to make sure she was alright."

"So?" Amy shot back, clearly confused on all levels. "What does that have to do with anything?"

The man sighed. "It wasn't regular-sounding, it- it almost-" Rory knew his wife would probably just mock him for what he was about to say, but he went ahead with it anyway. "It almost sounded like she had two hearts."

"That's because she does." The two humans jumped as they heard the voice of the Doctor behind them, the Time Lord bounding down the steps. "Gallifreyans do tend to have a binary vascular system, after all."

The woman's eyes widened. "Gallifreyans… you mean… Gallifrey? Your planet?" she managed to stammer.

"The one and only," the bow-tied man answered.

"But I thought… I thought you said your people died in that… in that war," Amy continued to press, still trying to wrap her head around the idea that this young girl could be a member of the Doctor's people.

"That's what I thought too, until I received a call on this handy thing-" He held up his psychic paper. "And went to investigate." The alien let out a tired huff as he laid himself down on the captain's seat, looking up at the couple. "But apparently some poor child's parents sent her off-planet before I Time-Locked it."

The trio let that information seep in for a few minutes before Amelia spoke up again. "When you were holding her, you were whispering something to- Laea," the woman finally remembered the young girl's name. "And the TARDIS didn't translate it."

"Gallifreyan," the Doctor muttered, looking somehow both so young and so old at the same time. "The one language the TARDIS doesn't translate. It's kind of hoped that in a time machine from your own planet you know your own first tongue."

"What are you planning to do with her?" Rory spoke up as well. "Surely you can't just leave her somewhere."

The bow-tied alien looked shocked. "Of course not. I was never thinking about such a thing. She's my responsibility now." His voice shook with sorrow and deep-hidden anger. "She's the last of my species. I killed her parents, for goodness' sake. And you think I would just drop her off somewhere to be forgotten again? Not owing her a favour? Don't you get it? I'm all that she has now. So I'm going to take care of her."

"Another silently crying child you have to save," Amy echoed back.

And to her alarm, the Time Lord looked up at his magnificent Pond, slight tears in his eyes. "So she is," he muttered, glancing back down at his lap. "So she is."

The trio sat in an uncomfortable silence for a while until the Doctor stood back up again. "I'm going to make sure Laea's settled. Now you two, go rest. It's been a long day." With that command, he smiled softly at the couple. "Don't get into too much trouble," he called as he walked up the stairs of the console room.

And as Amy and Rory obeyed and went to go to sleep, they knew there was one thing they could agree on.

It had been a long day.

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**First, I'd like to thank you guys for all the feedback on this. I'm glad you seem to like it so much! I promise I'll be trying my best to update more regularly (as with all of my stories) but you know how school can get, ugh.**

**And then, a few notes on the story in general. I know there's the whole "Time Lord is a rank, Gallifreyan is a species" thing, but just for the sake of this fic let's pretend Time Lady is synonymous with Gallifreyan, alright? **

**Oh, and Laea's name is pronounced "lah-ey-ah" if you wanted to know that for some reason.**

**Overall I hope you guys liked this and everything's accurate and such. Please, please, please leave me a review so I know what you all think of this! Thanks again!**


	3. Chapter 3

He couldn't quite believe it.

The fact that this little girl, sleeping so peacefully on this small cot, was a Time Lady… it was beyond him. He had been alone for so long he had forgotten what it was like to hear his language spoken by someone other than himself, to feel such a presence in his mind, to realise that two hearts were beating next to his.

He wasn't alone anymore.

As soon as he had headed back to Laea from the TARDIS console he had quietly taken off the child's robes and left the undershirt on below them as a sort of pyjamas. The man had then rushed around like a crazy person, finding pillows and blankets that he hoped would keep her comfy, placing them on the bed of the room he'd decided to drop her off at.

At last, he had laid the young girl on the cot, pulling the covers up to her chest, leaning down a bit to kiss her gently on the forehead, to remind both herself and him that they were somehow actually together now.

It had been a few hours since the Doctor had put Laea to rest, and he had alternated for that amount of time between staring at this child in fascination, and softly singing Gallifreyan lullabies that the alien had long since thought he had forgotten. He just hoped somehow his voice was helping the little girl to the sleep she really desperately deserved.

At one point when he was singing he noticed Laea beginning to stir, fidgeting around in the covers a bit. Then, the Time Lady slowly opened her eyes, groggily taking in the details around her. Suddenly realising that she wasn't in closest that she had made her home for quite some time, the child sat up quickly. But thankfully, her utter shock seemed to lessen as she saw the familiar face of the Doctor next to her. "Theta?" she whispered, still obviously sleepy.

"Laea," the man replied back. "How are you? Feeling any better?"

"Yes," she answered. Then, feeling the area around her, she turned a confused gaze towards the Time Lord. "Where are we?"

"In my TARDIS, don't worry. You're safe," he stated. "That's a promise."

The child smiled softly at this, but then pulled into a frown. "You're travelling with two people. Who are they?"

The Doctor wasn't too happy that maybe his encounter with the Ponds had woken her up, but nevertheless he responded to the girl's question. "Their names are Amelia and Rory," he finally said.

"Are they from Gallifrey too?" the young Time Lady asked.

The Doctor's hearts dropped. How could he ever explain to this innocent child that they were the last of their kind? He couldn't, definitely not now as he looked into her hopeful eyes. "No, they're humans, Laea. From Earth." he settled on saying.

"Oh! My mother used to tell me stories about Earth!" Laea was suddenly bounding with excitement. "With its blue sky and green grass and wonderful animals like the changaloo and firaffe! I loved those." The girl then glanced expectantly at the Time Lord. "Did Amelia and Rory bring any of those creatures with them?"

The man laughed at her interpretation of Earth animals. "I don't think Rory or Amy brought anything with them- but let me tell you, I'll take you to an Earth zoo where you can see real giraffes and kangaroos."

"Awesome! Thank you so much!" the little child practically threw herself on the Doctor, him gasping for air. She giggled a bit, then stared at him, his hearts yet again breaking, but in a happier way, as that beautiful smile looked out on him. Breaking his trance, the bow-tied Time Lord patted Laea on the back and held out his hand. "How'd you like a cold bath, Laea?"

"A lot!" the young girl grinned and held the man's outstretched hand. "Let's go!"

And as they took off down the hallways, the Doctor couldn't help but smile a little.

It seemed she liked running too.

The alien had run the water for Laea's bath and then left a bathrobe with her, telling her to knock on the door when she was ready to come out. The child agreed rather quickly, obviously ready to feel clean for a change, and had locked the door behind her.

Waiting around outside, the Time Lord thought of all the things this young girl would want to do= get some decent clothes, probably- so they'd have to go to the wardrobe- food, definitely- the TARDIS kitchens would do- and maybe she'd like the library, or one of the squash courts… his brain absolutely filled to the brim with ideas.

In fact, he was so preoccupied with this that he almost missed Amy walking right by him. "Amelia?" he called to her.

The woman turned around, smiling. "Hey, Doctor." She looked around a bit, then glanced back at her Raggedy Man. "Where's your new friend?" she asked.

"Oh, taking a bath," he nodded to the entryway next to him. He was about to continue on talking when a short yelp filled the air between them.

"Was that-" Amy started, but the Doctor had already opened the door and rushed to see what was the matter.

Sure enough, Laea was sprawled out on the floor of the bathroom, the ground and the bathrobe on her drenched with water. Apologetically, she looked up to the duo. "The floor was slick," she said quietly.

"You'll be fine, don't you worry," the man said reassuringly, helping her up to make her sit on the ledge of the bathtub to examine her legs. Seeing that her knees were bleeding, the Time Lord grimaced. "Amy, would you please get some bandages and alcohol from the med bay?"

The redhead woman replied yes and then rushed down the hall.

"It'll be fine, they'll be healed in about an hour," the girl remarked. "Good as new."

"Yeah, but we don't want to waste regeneration energy, do we? Or for them to become infected, for that matter," the Doctor pressed. Looking back and seeing his Pond behind him, he motioned for the medical supplies, the woman quickly handed them over.

Just a few moments later, the man had cleaned her wounds and bandaged them. Pleased with his work, he helped the small child to her feet again and grinned. "Now with that little thing taken care of, how about we pick out some clothes, huh?" Laea smiling happily, he turned to Amy, switching over to English. "You want to come with us, Amy?"

"Uh… I'm good," the redheaded woman sputtered, motioning down the hall. "I think Rory wanted me to meet him in the kitchen, so I'd better go."

"Alright, then," the Time Lord replied, a bit disappointed. "Well if you ever want to meet up, you know where we'll be."

Amy nodded, biting her lip, then headed down the hall yet again. Watching her leave for a while, the Doctor then turned to the Time Lady next to him. "You ready to go to my wardrobe, Laea?" And with an excited yes in reply from the girl, the pair walked off down the hall in the opposite way Amy had left.

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**Yay, yet another chapter (and I couldn't resist some fluff either). Sorry for the filler, but what must be done must be done. I promise in a few chapters will definitely have some things happening.**

**Oh, and if anyone's wondering what the timeline is for this, everything right now is happening right after A Christmas Carol, so between Series Five and Six. I hope that helps. **

**Anyways, I'm really glad you guys are seeming to enjoy this. Again, I'm really surprised by what good feedback I've gotten, and I appreciate it so much. Every review or favourite or follow I get inspires me to write more, so thank you very very much.**


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